Hello Out There

So it turns out that its harder to get to the blog posting with 2 kids. Interesting. Anyway, we have had an adventurous week here - we had my parents visiting all last week, which made for helpful extra hands. We went to the zoo, my parents got to brush up on their air guitar skills and some laundry got done. Jeff and I even got out to dinner alone one night, for the first time since the day the bed rest began. Sam wound up in the hospital then on Friday until Monday with a little infection - less a medical crisis than a logistical nightmare. We were very grateful that they ruled out enough things to be able to treat him at home. The mere mention of the other option, 2 weeks in the hospital on IV antibiotics, made me weep more than once. Casey came up a few times and he had some very sweet moments and some very "two" moments. And some good friends stepped up to help out with him so Jeff could spend time at the hospital - a gift we are getting better at receiving. Monday they let us go. Needless to say we had to take a rain check on Father's Day this year. Maybe we'll celebrate it next month. So we are all back under one roof and on to the task of defining the new normal. Two kids is a heck of a lot of work! And one of them is sleeping most of the time!
Last night we tried for a special family moment, but after both boys were in the stroller screaming and the dog got so hyper we could not contain him on the leash, we had to put the dog inside, find a pacifier and get Casey to relax. Ah, family time.
This morning, Casey had just finished getting dressed and Jeff brought Sam in and put him in Casey's lap. Casey held onto him tight and then looked at us and said "pictures?" So off I ran to get the camera. We have a feeling this picture will be favorite in the years to come.
So, some pictures of all these adventures and more ...

The annual picture on the turtle


Chatting with an actual turtle


Grandpa and Casey with the magnetic zoo from Aunt Sharon (he loves it!)


Grandma and Sam


Sam's bath


Sam's hospital stay


Sam resting peacefully


Sometimes its more fun to play drums outside


The soon to be classic brothers shot - Casey is saying "lunch!" and Sam's just wondering what the heck is going on here.